


Catch Me?

by Primarina (PastelBrachypelma)



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Cute, Domestic Fluff, Falling In Love, Fluff, Love, M/M, Pole Dancing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, also egoflapbang is only mentioned, based on art again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 20:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14292336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelBrachypelma/pseuds/Primarina
Summary: The room around Danny stuttered to a standstill, as if only himself and Arin existed in this moment. He gave Dan a once-over with a swift sweep of his appraising eyes before locking them on Dan’s again. He nodded once his, mouth tilted into a slight frown.Arin knew they could do this. More importantly, Arin wanted to do this.





	Catch Me?

“Oh hell nah,” Dan shook his head after Mark showed him the picture. “I’m not doing that.”

“Why not?” Sienna Spalding, who was already properly lubricating (or…the opposite of lubricating, as the case may be) the pole, piped up. “I totally think you can do it.” She winked as she rose from her crouch, tossing her long, dark hair over her shoulders. 

Because you’re a troll, Dan thought but didn’t say. He was beginning to suspect Sienna had the same personality as Ross and Brian. How the hell did he attract these kinds of people? Honestly.

And Mark, well…Mark knew some…things, that most fans weren’t privy to. And Dan was sure he suspected by now that he and Arin were a little more than just friends. Though honestly, it was kind of hard not to bond with someone who you spent most of your time with.

The logistics were coming later, pardon the pun.

Dan stopped the voices inside his head from chasing their tails just in time to hear Mark say: “Come on, Danny. It’ll be the coolest thumbnail ever!” It was at this point that Arin leaned over Mark’s shoulder to see what all the fuss was about, and made a comedic face around his water bottle.

Dan was really about to say no. He’d likely bruised Excalibur, not to mention the fact that he probably wouldn’t be able to have kids now, and also? He was tired, and just wanted to get the weird, naked Korean spa experience out of his head. He was about to see junk today. Lots of it. He wasn’t ready for it, all truth be told.

He smiled in the polite way that he’d learned from being in various forms of customer service jobs familiar among wait staff and retail workers that was meant to be pleasant on the outside while delivering terrible news. It had helped him learn to say “no,” honestly. He was still quite the people pleaser at heart, and he really hated turning people down…

But he was too old for this shit. Mark, being a young kid in his 20s, wouldn’t know what it felt like to be “too old” for a while yet, something Dan kind of envied. And the “no, I’d rather not do that just now, thanks for your understanding, Mark” really was on the tip of his tongue…

But then he just had to go and look at Arin.

Arin, who now looked intrigued, whose remarkably open face was creasing in between his brows and around his chin, which were both surefire tells of deep concentration, and whose big, bushy brows were drawn low over his eyes in a signal of determination. And all of that told Dan that Arin had thought things through, taken in all possible scenarios, and now knew for certain that they could pull this stupid pose off. 

His thoughts were confirmed when Arin met his gaze and, like it usually seemed to when they made eye contact, the room around Danny stuttered to a standstill, as if only himself and Arin existed in this moment. Arin’s eyes were dark, his face firm and set. He gave Dan a once-over with a swift sweep of his appraising eyes before locking them on Dan’s again. He nodded once, an unperceivable movement, his mouth tilted into a slight frown. 

Arin knew they could do this. More importantly, Arin wanted to do this.

Dan internally sighed as the inevitable left his lips: “Okay, let’s do this.”

“All right!” Mark jumped a foot off the ground, grinning, his eyes bright in excitement. “Thanks, guys! I appreciate this.”

“I love how you assume Arin’s just going to do it, just because I said yes,” Dan joked, slipping the sweatband off his forehead and tossing it in the general direction of his water bottle and sweat towel. 

“That’s because I am,” Arin replied haughtily, flopping down onto the ground in front of the pole. “Duh.”

“To be fair,” Mark pointed out as he walked over to talk with the cameraman, “you guys are kinda a package deal.”

“I’ll give you a package you’ll like,” Dan flirted automatically, trying to hide the fact that he was actually nervous as shit. Manageable without medication his anxiety may be, but that didn’t mean his neurons had relaxed by any stretch of the imagination, and he was already starting to chase his own tail as he thought of the potential injuries this could cause.

He was startled by Arin grabbing his ankle, and he jumped, looking down at Arin with wide eyes, only to find his (boyfriend? Lover? Special person?) staring back at him with concerned eyes and a worried frown.

“Are you okay? We really don’t have to do this, you know.” Arin smiled.

Dan’s heart skipped a beat, and his worried thoughts ground to a halt. The younger man looked adorable, hair sprawled out behind his head like a squished octopus, grinning even though he was showing all the signs of a very concerned Arin Hanson. 

He melted, as he often tended to do when in Arin’s presence. Clever fans had already spotted the fact that being around Arin tended to make him a bit awestruck and punch-drunk.

Dan nodded in response. “Yeah, I know. I want to. Just, um…” he chuckled nervously, “you will catch me if I fall, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Arin replied with a lover’s conviction, “but you won’t. Trust me. It’s gonna be okay.”

And Dan thought to himself, yeah. Because, really, everything so far had been all right. Grumps, NSP, and now Starbomb. Even big life things for him, like moving to California, becoming Arin’s…something…was all an easy transition. A pose for a picture? Totally doable.

“All right,” Mark announced, clapping his hands together and making Dan jump again, “you guys ready?”

“I’ll be nearby, in case you need help,” Sienna reassured them.

Arin and Dan nodded. “We’re ready,” he said.

While Dan was putting more dry-goop on his hands, Mark guided Arin into the correct position. Legs like a crab, one arm up, the other resting on the ground for now, ready to lift him up once Dan was getting into place. 

And then it was Dan’s turn. It was basically an upside-down sit. He’d almost managed the normal sit, really, though at the expense of Excalibur and the no-longer-able-to-provide-grandchildren incident, so in theory, he could pull it off.

Key words: in theory.

“Okay.” Dan took a deep breath, then got down onto the floor, swinging his legs up as Mark directed him, eventually using his arms to climb the rest of the way up. Arm put his arm into position, lifting himself up with a grunt, but Dan could barely register that, considering how much it fuckin hurt. His muscles were screaming that they were not meant to do this at the top of their lungs.

He got a bit of relief as Sienna helped him adjust his arms and feet, and he could rely on his core strength, which, apparently, he had a lot of. (He personally contributed any abs he had to the copious amount of vomiting he sometimes was laid up in bed doing, thanks to his sensitive Jew stomach, and his other stomach issues. But it was coming in handy now. Go figure.)

“Hey, cutie.”

The soft, deep voice rumbled through him like a bassline, and Dan slowly opened his eyes to find that he was inches from Arin’s face, their noses almost touching.

“Hey yourself,” Dan panted, his tone a little more strained due to his overworked muscles. Speaking of barfing, he was regretting the amount of water in his stomach threatening to spill out all over Arin. He swallowed, trying to keep the sparse contents of his stomach where they belonged. 

He could hear Mark talking, but his head was starting to get fuzzy. He was tired, nauseous, and just a bit dizzy from the heat trying to escape his body through sweat, but failing due to his stupid, nonexistent sweat glands. 

But then he looked at Arin, smiling sweetly at him. And Danny found himself relaxing, somehow. His stomach stopped churning, and the anxious fuzz turned into warm clouds. He smiled back, shifting down until he could lean down to Spiderman-kiss Arin, should he wish. He no doubt looked a little smug, though he could see that Arin only looked like himself, content and ordinary. Though, ordinary wasn’t the right word, really. Arin was just…Arin. He was his own unique star in Dan’s proverbial sky.

He loved Arin very much.

He was also definitely slipping, and cockiness turned to fear. He saw his own fear in Arin’s face right as Mark called: “Perfect! That was great!”

“Arin?” Dan’s voice sounded small to his own ears, never mind who else had heard. “Arin, catch me?”

Arin flopped back just in time, as Dan’s muscles gave out a second afterwards, and the older man fell into Arin’s firm chest in an inelegant heap, making the younger man grunt and muffle a belch.

“You idiot,” Dan laughed softly, turning into Arin’s chest as his face heated up in embarrassment, “you promised I wasn’t gonna fall.”

Arin huffed out a laugh, one hand cupping Dan’s head, pasting his curls to his face and neck before Dan could tuck them away. “Sorry. I forgot to factor in you being a weakling.”

Dan snorted, swatting at him. Only after Arin said, “Yeah, we’re fine!” did Dan realize that Mark, Sienna, and the production crew had been asking after their wellbeing after his fall. He sighed, wanting to lie content and safe against Arin for a little longer…

But for the sake of at least pretending to be platonic, it was time for him to get up. Dan rolled off of Arin, groaning. “Never. Again,” he growled, glaring playfully at Mark, who had the decency to look sheepish.

“On that note, who’s ready to get naked?” Arin asked jovially, sitting upright at a dizzying speed.

Dan covered his face with his hand, laughing. 

Why was this the man he had chosen to love?

~

It was much later, much quieter, the house dark. Suzy was out, which left her boys at home, taking comfort in each other.

Shirtless, lying against Arin’s equally shirtless chest, skin to skin and belly to belly, Dan finally felt relaxed. The spa had helped marginally, the relaxing techniques working wonders on his achy bones, but it had been a social occasion, which had quickly burned through the last of Dan’s socializing reserves. 

Here, in the dark and the quiet, his long arms wrapped around Arin’s neck, sitting comfortably on his lap, Dan could feel his best friend breathing against him, feel the heat and moisture of his breath against his shoulder. It was soothing, and he was unsurprised to find himself on the edge of sleep.

Arin nudged him again gently, coaxing bits of sandwich past his lips with murmured praise, his free hand running up and down Dan’s spine.

At the next nudge, however, Dan whined, turning into Arin’s neck.

“C’mon, Danny,” Arin soothed, “just one more bite, and then you can sleep.”

“You said that two bites ago,” Dan mumbled, tasting the salt of Arin’s skin. “Sleepy sleep.”

“No, Dan, come on,” Arin coaxed, teasing his fingers along Dan’s sides where he knew the older man was ticklish. “Even after we stopped for dinner, I was still hungry from pole dancing, and I’m willing to bet you are, too.”

Dan huffed, knowing that he was. His stomach ached, twisting in a hungry circle like a dog unable to get comfortable, and the fact that there was food readily available seemed to make it worse. Without verbal acknowledgement, he turned to delicately pluck the bite from between Arin’s waiting fingers, chewing against Arin’s shoulder.

“Good boy,” Arin purred, and Dan lit up like a firefly on a warm summer’s night. 

“I love you,” he whispered, pressing a sleepy kiss to Arin’s warm skin.

Arin nuzzled in between his curls to kiss the sensitive part of the center of his neck. “I love you, too, Danny.”

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this art here: https://gaygrumpart.tumblr.com/post/171608224505/lalnableleesh-gaygrumpart-request-filled-for 
> 
> My new quest to apparently fic every single piece of gaygrumpart's art has officially begun. You're welcome.
> 
> Also, I don't think Dan ever did do the Korean spa...but let's pretend he did, mmkay?


End file.
